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Updated: May 12, 2026

Repressing Gene Transcription by Redirecting Cellular Machinery with Chemical Epigenetic Modifiers
Published on: September 20, 2018
Polycomb-mediated 3D chromatin interactions in gene regulation
Sumin Kim1, Miles K Huseyin1, Anders S Hansen1
1Department of Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Gene Regulation Observatory, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Genomic Mechanisms of Disease, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Abstract:
The Polycomb repressive system is a conserved, chromatin-based transcriptional regulator that is essential for the normal development of multicellular organisms. Polycomb-group proteins catalyze repressive histone modifications and organize 3D chromatin interactions. While the relationship between Polycomb-deposited histone modifications and gene repression is well-established, how Polycomb-mediated 3D chromatin interactions contribute to gene regulation remains poorly understood. In this review, we discuss current insights into the formation of these interactions and potential models for how they contribute to Polycomb-dependent gene regulation.
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